13.8

The pace was brisk, with no room for conversation, as the sadhu led him back to Colaba.

Finally he stopped outside a train station and showed Max a set of beads –

“One rupee,” he said, placing them around Max’s neck.

Max thought he must have misheard.

“What was that?”

“One rupee,” the sadhu repeated, holding out his hand.

Max was confused. One rupee was as close to nothing as you could get. Even though he’d been living on the street for several days, he’d never even seen a single rupee. He had a wad – hundreds of thousands of rupees, and a fistful of dollars, but not a single rupee.

“Come on,” the sadhu urged.

Max was embarrassed.

Mate…

Why is he doing this?

Why spoil a good night by making a fool of you?

Reluctantly, he pulled the wad out of his pocket.

“Yes!” exclaimed the sadhu, eyeing it gleefully.

Max peeled off a hundred-rupee note and held it out. But rather than take it, the sadhu stepped back, leaving Max brandishing the note in a vacuum and feeling like an utter fool – a boy with too much money.

“Only love matters,” the sadhu said quietly.

And from behind an invisible wall, repeated –

“Only love.”